A String of Fate, a Slice of Heaven
by sulli-ssi
Summary: "She tastes like the bitter ashes of regret. She tastes like sweet death and winter flowers and the sun after the rain..."


**A/N:** I found this while reading "Guess How Much I Love You" by AquileStorm (link to the fic is right here: www. /s/5374245/1/Guess-How-Much-I-Love-You). I wanted to break free from crippling writer's block _and_ Advanced Maths (plus a few other science-y subjects), so I'm writing this, because it sounded fun. Grammatical/spelling errors will be blamed on the lack of time. Enjoy!

_1. Pick a character/pairing/fandom you like._

_2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle._

_3. Write a drabble related to teach song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!_

_4. Do ten of these, then post them._

_._

_._

1- **Haunted/Almost **by Eminem/Taylor Swift

Ichigo clenches his fist as Ishida passes on the hallway outside the classroom. He knows, _he knows_, that the Hollow is out there. Where would it be? Who is its target? He doesn't know, and it is frustrating. He has had seventeen months to perfect his reactions to everything, but he cannot help how he feels.

He has lost the battle, in a way, because he is left powerless at the end. Wasn't this what he wanted? Some normalcy? It is impossible now, he thinks. He's seen too much, done too much.

He has met Kuchiki Rukia, and he will never be the same.

He doesn't want to admit that he misses her. That he is haunted by her presence, that she is always there in his mind, in his heart. It's not fair, he thinks agitatedly. His fingers clench on the edge of his desk. It's not fair that she can see him and he can't see her. It's not fair that she gave him that look – that last lingering look – like she wanted to tell him something and _he just couldn't hear_.

He just wants to hear her say those words that she wanted to tell him. He wants to see her.

And it hurts, everyday, knowing that he doesn't know.

It is haunting, just like her.

2- **Turn It Off** by Paramore

Rukia slashes the Hollow's mask in two, and lands on the ground in a crouch as it disintegrates. It is only when she stands up and sees Ishida running towards her that she notices that she is near the school.

"Kuchiki-san," Ishida says in acknowledgement, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "I see you've taken care of things. May I inquire as to why you're here?"

"Replacing the shinigami here for a week," she answers politely. "He's as useless as ever…"

Ishida nods and turns. Rukia hesitates before following him. She wants to see that idiot, that…

She doesn't know what he is, now. They have hit rock bottom before they can recover; he has lost his powers before she can fully comprehend them…comprehend what has happened to him. He is different, even if she had said before that he will never change. She wonders if he hasn't, in a way, but knows that he has. He always confuses her – changing but not changing at the same time.

She enters the school grounds and her feet seem to know their way around. She does not get any looks apart from Inoue, and she is in the same class as him.

He does not see her. Her heart sinks, even though she has expected this.

She wants to touch him. But she can't. She clenches her fist, and walks away.

3- **Meltdown** (Vocaloid – Rin Kagamine)

Ichigo grumbles lightly as she glares at him. He glares pointedly back, but this silent attack misses her, because her eyes are drawn back to the sketch pad in front of her.

She is not drawing bunnies. She is trying to draw _him_ properly, for once, and it is proving to be quite a challenge. She sees him twitch in the corner of her eye, and she yells, "Don't move, idiot!" before turning back to her work.

They have not seen each other for seventeen months, and this is what she chooses to do with him.

"What is this for anyway?" Ichigo asks through clenched teeth. Even though she has asked him to look like he always looks, it seems that putting conscious thought into _scowling_ is quite a challenge.

She doesn't answer, but he can see the light blush grace her cheeks before dying down. He tries very, very hard not to grin. He wonders why she blushed, but doesn't come up with an answer. Instead, he thinks of how cute she looks –

Wait, _cute_?

He feels the redness in his cheeks blossom as well, and wonders where _that_ came from. Of course, he rationalises quickly, it must be because she's such a midget. Short people are naturally cute…right?

Wrong. He knows that _Rukia_, of all people, is unable to be remotely _cute_. But…why did she just look like that, then? He stares at her harder, trying to decipher _why_. Is it the new haircut that accentuates her features well? Is it the gloves, framing her delicate hands?

He doesn't know. And he doesn't want to.

So he just settles with sitting like a statue and glaring at her.

4- **I'm in Here** by Sia

It tries to break free. It sees the King interact with the Queen and it wants to tell the King to _goddamn it, stop acting like an idiot_. But it can't. It is silenced. For what? For wanting to act out its desires?

But those desires…those are the King's desires as well, are they not? All it wants is to enact those desires, because it is part of the King's soul, for better or for worse…but it is shunned. Why is the Old Man not shunned? Why is it the one always being fought against, when it only speaks the truth from the deepest, darkest depths of the King's soul?

The only time it has been acknowledged was when the Queen had another one of it…in her. It knows that the Queen had been fused with a Hollow once – it felt that other thing, when the King gave his strength to the Queen. They conversed for a few seconds, and _it_ disappeared…and it had to wonder if that would happen to it eventually, too.

Why are they always shunned, cast out? Are they not part of the Great Balance?

It clenches its fists. It would have its time.

It would crush the King's stupid skull under his feet and show everyone…what power is.

5- **Mad** by Ne-Yo

Rukia holds back the tears so effortlessly that it disturbs her. She looks at him and wonders why, oh god why, did he have to jump in front of her? Why…did he have to follow her?

She can hear their shouts, but not their words. She cannot even remember what they have fought over. She can only remember being so unbelievably mad, and not wanting to be. She had been ready to forgive him; she had just wanted some time alone, some time to vent. He shouldn't have followed her – they both know that she's going to walk farther away.

But how can they know, how can they fucking know, that that van lost its brakes?

How can she have known to not look back at him and see the van coming at her? She shouldn't have looked back…right?

She can still hear the echo of his voice when they lower his casket into the ground.

She cannot sleep for years without him beside her.

She does not want to move on. And when she thinks she sees him, and it is not him…her heart breaks again. Whatever is left of it seems to dissipate and cease to exist.

When she finds another man, she cannot bring herself to give her heart to that man. How can she, when her heart has been lost from _that day_? What is there to heal, to mend, to stitch back together?

She feels him there, everyday.

She can never betray him.

6- **Rolling in the Deep** by Go Radio

It smirks at her, and she is quick to raise her sword once again.

It knows that she cannot kill it, because it is in _his_ body. There are still goose bumps on her skin, underneath her gloves, from when it called her its Queen; its King of Spades, hidden underneath all the layers of darkness and Hollow.

She wonders how many times she has to stab Ichigo before he can get enough power on his own, or if he would ever have enough…

She's not complaining; why would she, when she had told him so many times that she would give everything up for him? Hadn't she done it before?

But he cannot rescue her all the time. She told him that she'd fight in his place, and that's what she's doing – fighting his body until he can wrestle control of it.

It sneers in her face.

She is caught off-guard; when did it arrive in front of her?

She feels pain in her heart. She feels her sword pierce through muscle and bone, and she can feel her own chest being ripped open by what seems to be a million blades.

But his heart is safe…

It is safe…

And these thoughts become her last before her last breath is taken.

7- **America's Suitehearts** by Fall Out Boy

Renji feels as if he has been stabbed by Ichigo's blade while being told to smile and laugh.

Rukia is happy and dressed so beautifully. Her indigo eyes glisten, looking like the deepest shade of blue, like they usually do whenever she's ready to burst into tears or bright, twinkling laughs…or both. He can tell that she's trying not to, for the sake of modesty. He wonders when her smile has ever become so wide.

She is not looking at him.

And he is there, _right there_, and he does not say a thing because it will make her unhappy.

He is so in love, and it is such a sin. She, too, loves someone; it hurts that it is not him.

So he buckles his emotions down and takes it with a shit-eating grin.

Because he is Renji Abarai and she is Rukia Kuchiki, and he was never meant to hers in the first place.

8- **Torn Apart** by Shiro Sagisu

He is running, using shunpo. He can see her hanging limply in Byakuya's arms, but he cannot – will not – believe it. He needs to –

Byakuya sets her down on some soft piece of cloth laid out on the sandy ground. She is not meant for this, he thinks. She deserves to –

"Rukia!" he exclaims. Inoue stands to the side. Why isn't she – "Rukia, wake up!"

Byakuya is facing away. Walking away. He cannot blame the man; he was not able to fulfil his promise to his dead wife. He let his sister go –

"Rukia!" his voice is the only thing he hears. It is like nothing and no one dares to speak over him as he calls her name into empty air. Her eyes are closed, and he wants them to open, to glare at him. He wants those fists to beat against his chest until he bruises. "Rukia, wake up! Wake up wake up, you goddamn midget, don't you dare do this to me – wake up, you idiot, don't you know I love you, wake up wake up."

He has never been so silent and so panicked and so hurt. He does not care that people are watching him as they count the casualties. She is the only one important to him – the only one gone. Why is everyone else okay? Why is he? This is a betrayal –

When he brings her lips to hers in one, last, desperate attempt, his heart clenches as he feels her soft but cold lips. She tastes like the bitter ashes of regret. She tastes like sweet death and winter flowers and the sun after the rain.

She is the very opposite of a princess and he is the exact opposite of a prince, and they deserve each other, doesn't she know that…?

He looks at her. Limp. Unmoving.

A scream tears itself from his throat as a hurricane settles upon his soul.

9- **0330** by U-Kiss

She is dead.

They can hear the whispers behind their backs, the murderous glares meant to separate their intertwined hands, their tied fates.

But they will not listen; they know, they believe.

A technically, isn't it, that he's _part_ human? He's still part dead, in a way, isn't he? So why can no one understand that he doesn't care how many times she has told him that? Why can't they believe that she is not 'robbing the cradle', because she does not and will not force him into staying in this relationship, that it is his choice, that she does not know the first thing about seducing anyway?

They bicker, they kiss, they glare, they have sex, they fight…each other and Hollows and every other enemy in between. Not necessarily in that order.

But it is so goddamn good, and it works for the both of them.

They are perfect, and damn anyone who thinks otherwise.

10- **Devotion** by Hurts

He loves her that it tears him apart to see her have that wistful, painful look on her face. She is looking out the window constantly, as if that will allow her use of her legs. As if it will turn back time.

He can see it all replay in the back of his mind, filling his gut with gnawing sorrow.

She is crossing the street to reach him. The truck comes. He is not fast enough – will never be fast enough, now. There is blood everywhere. Screaming, shouting…commands. Bright fluorescent lights. One of her eyes are replaced. Her right fingers will not work the same way.

And so he will cure her, in the only way he knows how.

There is the velvet box, resting in his pocket.

He sees her an inch away from the stairs. He breaks into a run – what is she doing, what –

This time, he is fast enough.

He catches her.

And he saves her, in more ways than one.

Because even if it takes months for her to heal her legs…there is no better time to heal her heart and her soul.

.

.

**A/N:**

1) Ahh…I love writing in Ichigo's Hollow's point-of-view. I don't know if it actually has an official name or not, but it's almost always called Ogichi or Shirosaki (I like the latter much better, honestly); still, I don't want to slip up and call it one thing then call it another a few seconds later, so I use 'it' whenever I talk about his inner Hollow.

2) I feel sorry for Renji, but I guess he's the type to just 'take it' and 'deal with it'. I love him and all, but dude, he can't even hold a grudge against Ichigo for beating him up, _bad_, and saving the girl and being all hero and shit.

3) 'Torn Apart' was based on 'The Book Thief', which is a pretty good book (like, finally, a GOOD BOOK to analyse in English class, now I can at least half-pretend to be interested). 'Torn Apart' is based on (SPOILER: ) the part where everyone dies and the main protagonist, Liesel, finds her childhood best friend and love interest, Rudy, lying dead. It's a sad scene, and it's one of the few reasons I like the book (what can I say, I like those tear-jerkers).

4) 'Devotion' was actually based on the PV on YouTube, check it out – it's about Mio (from K-On!) and some guy, and…well, it's basically what 'Devotion' is written about. But the video is much better, trust me.

5) Promotion note: Read my other fics please, and add reviews, ne?

"Always Be With Me In Mind" – basically about Rukia getting a Hollow and Ichigo saving her. Again. But, y'know, I think Rukia is getting picked on by Kubo-sensei; she's one of the main characters, and yet she doesn't have Bankai? I expect one, and so to avoid much ranting, I have instead written a fic where she actually has power, and saving her doesn't take swinging swords.

"The Learning Curve" – rockstar Rukia/Momo (I KNOW RIGHT. IMAGINE IT. SERIOUSLY.)/Rangiku/Orihime/Soi Fon (totally plausible) + mixed martial arts professional fighter Ichigo Kurosaki + Ichigo and Renji bodyguard detail = fun to write.


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